February 20, 2008

"No Stairway!" policy temporarily waived

Post inspiration from CollegeHumor, via cityrag (brought to you today by TigerDirect.com.....grrr...)

I've said it before, but I believe Matt Stone and Trey Parker from South Park are the closest thing to a social satirist such as Jonathan Swift we have today. Many people are unable to see past the vulgarity and crudeness of some of the humor, but the biting, dead-accurate social critique is always there. A great example from the past season is in the episode titled "Guitar Queer-o," wherein they point out an intrinsic problem with the super popular (understandably so) Guitar Hero video game series. The problem is that all of the time and effort put into mastering the game could be time and effort invested in actually learning to play a real guitar, or any instrument, for that matter. Particularly in the case of teens and pre-teens, it's such a shame, and quite frankly, a waste.

I feel so fortunate to have grown up in the 80s when there wasn't really such a thing (and if there had been, my parents would not have spoiled me by buying it anyway; I wasn't even allowed TV in my room). Had there been, I might not have learned to play guitar - a skill I still enjoy, some twenty-five years later. How many kids playing Guitar Hero today will be able to say that about their Guitar Hero "skills" twenty-five years from now? How about zero?

This boy's parents have done him such a huge favor (for one thing, he'll never lack a girlfriend, if my experience was typical):

Has some group done a cover version of "Stairway to Heaven"? How idiotic is that?? It sure doesn't sound like Led Zeppelin in a couple of places! The kid is certainly playing the Jimmy Page parts note for note, though.

2 comments:

This is awesome. I couldn't agree more with you or your parents. We do not use cable in our house, only one tv in the house, in the family room. No video games! My daughter has been in piano lessons since she was 4, she's 9 now and absolutely loves it. This kid is great, you'll probably have lots of traffic today, I'm sending the link to your blog to lots of friends. I think you make a very valid point.

Hey kenna - I don't know about the no cable thing (I think it's okay to have such entertainment in the home), but even if your daughter hates piano lessons now, I bet there'll come a time when she'll be grateful you forced or allowed her to take them! And I speak from experience - my parents forced me, I hated it at the time, yet now I feel so privileged to have had the experience.